After Life
by Super8Geek
Summary: Jack Anderson was fourteen years old when he was murdered after the Swan's Court Cotillion. For almost a year, he has been roaming the streets of Seaford in his ghost form, trying to find a way to communicate with Kim Crawford, the girl who hasn't quite gotten over his death.
1. Prologue

So I finished the chapters for my other Kickin' It fan-fic, _Just Friends _and I will be resuming that story sometime within the next week or two. Now that summer is started for me, I can finally start this story that I've been waiting to start for a long time. My friend, Bella helped me come up with the idea back in February, but we decided to start collaborating on it when summer started, so there would be absolutely no delays in the chapter.

**Jack Anderson was fourteen years old when he was murdered after the Swan's Court Cotillion. For almost a year, he has been roaming the streets of Seaford in his ghost form, trying to find a way to communicate with Kim Crawford, the girl who hasn't quite gotten over his death.**

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After Life

Jack Anderson 

Chapter 1 

Prologue 

I was fourteen the night that I was murdered. I've been roaming the streets of Seaford, California for almost a year now. It's been hard to be stuck here, seeing the hard times that all of my friends went through after it happened. Especially the girl that I almost asked to be my girlfriend, Kim Crawford. I was so close. I moved to Seaford when I was thirteen, and we hit it off from the start. I knew she had a crush on me, I mean I could see it, but I didn't bug her too much about it because I knew that I had a crush on her too. But I didn't ever ask her out, because I thought that one day we would have a confrontation about our feelings being mutual, but I never knew that the day would be when I would be when I was murdered.

**One Year Ago **

_It was a warm night in Seaford, and Kim and I were walking home from the Riverside Country Club after the Swan's Court Cotillion. We were both covered in what was now dry gravy. She shuffled beside me slowly as we walked towards our houses. We were both really tired from dancing all night long, she shivered beside me, hugging herself with her arms in silence._

"_Are you cold?" I asked her. _

"_Maybe a little." She said quietly. "I guess a jacket might have been a good thing to bring."_

"_Here." I said as I took off the tuxedo jacket I was wearing and wrapped it around her. She smiled gratefully and held onto the collar of it as we continued to walk together. _

"_I'm sorry that I was so insensitive towards you," Kim said quietly, looking up at me. "I was upset that you weren't going with me, so I guess you could say that I used Brody to get back at you. I'm sorry, Jack."_

"_Don't worry about it, Kim." I said as I smiled down at her, looking at the crown on her head. "I should've accepted your invitation in the first place, I mean it would've been really fun if we had gone together." _

_She shrugged, "Well, with the time that we spent together tonight, it still was pretty fun." _

_We continued to walk now in a comfortable silence. Now was the perfect time to tell her that I like her. I heard distant footsteps behind us and I turned around. There was nothing there. I turned back to Kim hesitantly before sighing, "Kim, can I tell you something?"_

_She stopped in her tracks and looked back at me, "What is it, Jack?"_

"_Well, I know that you have a crush on me…" I said catching up to her with a goofy grin. "But it's okay, because I have a crush on you too." _

"_You do?" She asked, a blushing creeping up onto her rosy cheeks. She smiled happily and looked down at her feet. "Well, what took you so long?"_

_I shrugged, scratching the back of my head, "I don't know. I guess I was scared."_

"_You're scared? You're Jack Anderson, a black belt in Karate and you're scared to tell me that you like me?" She asked in disbelief. Then she smiled sweetly. "You must really like me then."_

"_I do." I said with a smile. "I really do."_

"_Well that's good, so I'm not the only one."_

_I smiled at her and we started to lean in. I started to hear footsteps coming closer, and the next thing I know, I'm on the ground, unable to move. My head feels like it's a thousand pounds heavier and I feel warm liquid gushing out. _

"_FRANK?" Kim screamed in disbelief. "What did you just do?" _

"_I-I didn't mean to hit him so hard!" Frank said, dropping the baseball bat that he must've just used to nail me in the back of the head. _

_Kim rushed to my side and then I see Brody and Sensei Ty running down the sidewalk towards us while Kim cradles my head in her lap. My head felt numb, and my white dress-shirt along with my dress coat that Kim was wearing were now drenched in blood. _

"_Jack, stay with me." Kim said, tears welling up in her eyes. "Please."_

_Brody rushed to my side and looked at Kim apologetically, but all she did was nail him with a fist to the face. He felt onto his back and cupped his cheek, "Okay, maybe I deserved that. But I'm not a part of this, Kim! I know you shouldn't trust me, but I wouldn't do anything to hurt Jack! I know you like him."_

"_Just call for an ambulance, please!" Kim snarled at him. _

"_I-I'm okay." I told her, shakily bringing my bloody hand up to touch her cheek, she leaned against it with tears running down her cheeks. "Don't cry, please." _

"_I love you." She whispered, kissing my lips lightly._

_I kissed her back weakly and smiled slightly, staring into her eyes, "I love you."_

"_What the hell were you thinking, Frank!" Sensei Ty screamed in Frank's face as he frowned apologetically, looking ashamed. _

"_I did what you told me to do! You said to get him back for embarrassing the Black Dragons!" Frank said, trying to stick up for himself as Kim started to cry over my body. _

"_I said to get him back as in teach him a lesson, not to kill him!" Sensei Ty said running a frustrated hand through his hair as he pointed at me. "You killed him! We're going to go to jail now, Frank! There's no escaping what you've done."_

"_Killed?" I said as I stood up, walking towards Sensei Ty. "Frank didn't kill me, I'm fine." _

_Sensei Ty had his back on me so I reached out my hand to put on his shoulder, but it went straight through and I stumbled and went right through him and Frank. _

"_What the heck?" I said, standing up. "Kim, what's going on?"_

_I looked at Kim who was still sobbing over a lifeless body. Wait, was that me? Was that my body? I stepped closer and gasped. That was me, and I was dead. Frank had killed me, but it was an accident. I walked right up to Kim and kneeled down beside her. I looked cautiously at my body, wishing that this was all a dream, but it was reality, I was dead. _

"_We can't go to jail, I can't afford to lose the dojo to some untrained scum." Sensei Ty said, clapping at Frank who flinched. "We must get out of here, go get that bat and let's go." _

_But they were too late, Brody ran back to the scene and an ambulance and a few cop cars pulled up. They got out of the cars and pulled out their pistols, pointing them at Sensei Ty and Frank who dropped the bat and got on his knees with tears in his eyes. I felt bad, Frank wasn't exactly the smartest person, so I wasn't surprised that he misinterpreted what Sensei Ty ordered him to do. _

_A couple of paramedics rushed to Kim and my body with a gurney. Next thing I know, Jerry, Eddie, Milton and Eddie are running to us down the street as Brody pulls Kim away from the gurney where the paramedics are covering my body up. Rudy's eyes widened as he realized what was going on, "TY!"_

_Sensei Ty turned around with anger in his eyes, "What do you want, Rudy?"_

_Rudy punched him in the nose as the police officers handcuffed him and shoved him and Frank into the back of two separate cop cars. Kim had wrestled herself out of Brody's grip and he stumbled back and frowned as she went to hug the others. _

"_I can't believe this." Milton said with puffy red eyes. "My girlfriend's uncle set up my best friend to be killed. I am so sorry, Jack." _

"_It's okay, Milton. It isn't your fault." I said as he stared at my covered up body on the gurney but I forgot that he couldn't hear me. I was nothing but a voice with no sound. _

"_Tonight was so swag, but now it's the worst day of my life." Jerry said with a frown. "I'm sorry things had to go down like this, bro." _

"_I can't believe this is happening." Eddie said quietly. _

_The paramedics pulled the gurney into the back of the ambulance and let Rudy and Kim ride in the back of it. I followed them inside and stood there, watching them both stare at the black tarp that covered my body as they drove to the hospital. Rudy stood up and slowly uncovered my face and he clenched his fists, staring down at my lifeless, pale, bloody face. My eyes were still wide open. _

"_This has gone too far." Rudy said calmly, sitting back down as he stared at the body. "We will get them back, Kim. We will avenge Jack." _

"_It's not what he would want, Rudy." Kim said, speaking for the first time since I died. "Jack wasn't a violent guy, what he would want is for us to try and get over it." _

_She kneeled down beside the gurney and used two of her fingers to slowly close my eyelids, and she kissed my cold forehead before covering me back up with the black tarp. Rudy sighed, burying his face into his hands, "You're right, Kim. But Jack is family to us at the Bobby Wasabi Dojo. How are we going to honor his death?" _

"_I don't know." Kim mumbled as she held on to the bloody suit jacket that I gave to her to wear. "But we'll figure out something."_

**Present Day **

Ever since the night I died, Kim had been trying to commit suicide, and she wanted to give up. I always stayed with her, and I told her to never give up. And she didn't. I wondered if she could hear me, or feel my presence because sometimes she would talk to no one when she was alone, like she was talking to me. Jerry, Milton and Eddie were always there for Kim, though. It was just as hard on them because they were like my brothers. Rudy had completely become a more serious person. He had a framed photo of me at the entrance of the dojo before my funeral.

Life around Seaford was different after I was killed. The Black Dragons Dojo was shut down and all of the students there had to go through a series of tests at the police station to make sure that they weren't a part of what happened. Sensei Ty was put into jail for life, and Frank was sentenced only five years. I think that even the government knew that he was a little bit clueless. Brody on the other hand moved back to whatever state or city he came from afterwards. He had been banned from the state of the California for knowing what Frank was planning to do to me on accident.

Things were hardest around my family. Both of my parents were hard on themselves for never spending as much time supporting me and my martial arts career and just for not paying more attention my little sister, G **(A/N: I'm using G. Hannelius as Jack's sister in the story because her and Leo Howard played siblings on Leo Little's Big Show!) **but they stepped it up and always made time for her. She was going through a hard time, and was in denial about my death. She didn't want to believe that something so violent could happen.

Kim would frequently visit G, since Kim was an only child, she was close with my sister because they used to prank me all of the time. It was actually kind of fun to be pranked by them, because I would sometimes turn the pranks on them. But G knew that I was still roaming around. I would come to her room every night and we would talk. Somehow, she could see me but she didn't tell anyone, especially Kim because she would go paranoid trying to see me too. I had tried to communicate with Kim, and now that she was more and more distant these days, it was becoming harder because she wouldn't pay attention to anything.

Normally, Kim would pay attention to the little things and she would always notice little things. I would try to send signals, by flickering lights or turning on the radio but she wouldn't ever notice. Kim just wasn't the same dazzling southern belle that she was. And I missed her, and I promised myself that I would help her recover from her shocked state right up until she landed in the hospital from severe depression that was affecting her blood pressures and body. She wasn't in good shape at all mentally. She was fragile and pale physically.

I walked into the hospital and went to Kim's hospital room where she lay in the bed, staring out the windows. I frowned. I hated seeing her like this, and I hated knowing it was all because of me, "Kim?"

For the first time in a year, she turned her head slowly in my direction and her eyes widened, "J-Jack?"

"You can see me?" I asked curiously as I came closer to her.

She jumped up in the hospital bed and grabbed onto her blankets, screaming at me with tears in her eyes, "GET AWAY FROM ME! YOU AREN'T JACK!"

"No, no, Kim! It's me, I am Jack. I'm a ghost." I told her calmly, using my arms to try and hold her but I went straight through her and she screamed again, this time even louder.

"IS THIS A DREAM? HELP! SECURITY! SOMEONE HELP ME!" Kim screamed, tossing and turning in her bed.

The door busted open and a couple of doctors, nurses and tall, built men from the security came running in Kim's room, "What is it, Miss Crawford?" One of the nurses' said in an alarmed tone.

Kim's eyes were wild as she pointed right at me and all of the heads in the room turned to look at me but they all furrowed the brows in confusion, "Kim. There is nothing there, you are just seeing things, it's a part of the high blood pressure, and you should try to sleep."

"You don't understand!" She said, breathing heavily. "I saw him, I saw Jack!"

"Jack Anderson was murdered brutally last year." One of the security guards said coldly.

Kim looked at him and started to cry again, one of the nurses injected her IV with a medicine that would hopefully calm Kim down at my eyes watered at the sight of seeing her like this. I didn't know how I would help her recover if she looked at me like I was a monster.

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Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed. Reviews would mean a lot because I am collaborating on this with my friend and we would like to know if there are readers or not. New chapter coming tomorrow, so please review and let us know what you think :)


	2. Unpleasant Reunion

Hello! I'm so glad that everyone liked and reviewed the first chapter of the story. I know the storyline and what's going on in it is very tragic but I promise that it'll get better and if you don't like tragedies, and possible unhappy endings, then I suggest not reading my story, I'm just trying to be as realistic as possible with this and I know some people like happy stories, and it's safe to say that there are a lot of other amazing Kickin' It fan-fics that are just very happy :)

If you reviewed my story, you can find my reply at the end of each chapter and I will respond to everyone, even anonymous, so thank you for the reviews because they mean a lot and they motivate me to continue the story! Hopefully you enjoy this chapter, in Kim's POV as well as Milton's for part of it. It's a LONG chapter so please enjoy! I also can't really predict how many chapters this story will be, but I know it won't be any more than twenty.

**Jack Anderson was fourteen years old when he was murdered after the Swan's Court Cotillion. For almost a year, he has been roaming the streets of Seaford in his ghost form, trying to find a way to communicate with Kim Crawford, the girl who hasn't quite gotten over his death.**

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After Life

Kim Crawford 

Chapter 2 

Unpleasant Reunion 

I feel lost, and confused. I'm not sure what to do with myself, I haven't been sure how to continue with my life ever since Jack was murdered last year. Jack was everything to me, and I wished that I had realized it before Frank killed him. I knew that Jack would want me to try to live my life to it's highest potential after he died, but I just couldn't do it. I couldn't find the motivation to help me move forward. No one understood what Jack and I had. People may have seen it as just having a 'crush' on each other, but it was so much more than that. I could talk to Jack, about anything, literally and he could talk to me about everything. I knew him inside, out. I knew his flaws and I accepted him for he was, as he did to me. And I didn't ever think that anyone would want to hurt someone like Jack.

I sat in the hospital, staring at the dull painting on the wall right in front of me. It was a painting of a flower that was gray with dead petals. It was a beautiful painting, but I could see that this artist had a dark passion for art and used it for the wrong thing. Painting dead flowers didn't suit this artist. I had so many things running through my mind. Like what the hell just happened?

I was put into the hospital for being paranoid, suicidal and just having high blood pressure from all of the stress lately in school. I don't know how I got into this dark place, because if someone were to tell me this time, last year that I would be possibly going to a mental institution, and would be the complete opposite of my positive persona, then I would've never have believed them.

I prayed that I could be put into the Mental Institution that was 3 hours north of Seaford, because then I would be far away from here, and that's all I wanted ever since I saw 'Jack'. I wasn't sure if it was his ghost, or what it was but I was too scared to even look at it. Something in me told me that it was him, but I wasn't sure how it could be because he's dead, and if his ghost has been around, then why is he just now exposing himself after almost a year?

A warm breeze came into the room and I slowly broke my stare with the painting of the dead flower and looked over at the windows. They were both closed. I nervously pulled my blankets up to my chin and stared at the picture again, "Jack? Is that you?"

Suddenly a bright light blinded me and I had to use my arms to shield my eyes. When the light went away, there was Jack, standing there in his ghost form, staring down at me with those caring eyes. He hadn't changed a bit, I don't know what I expected, I guess I expected him to look somewhat older, but seeing as he is a ghost, he shouldn't look the least bit different. But the thing is, he did look different, so much different. He didn't look like he did at his funeral last year, he looked the exact opposite.

**One Year Ago **

_A few days after his death, Jack's parents started to plan his funeral. They spent two whole weeks doing it, calling in their relatives from around the world and inviting his closest friend's personally, including me. His parents didn't have the courage to talk to me straight, because I always cringed whenever I heard his name. I couldn't bring myself to want to go to his funeral. I was sick of people giving me their condolences about his death, and sick of turning on the TV to hopefully get my mind off of him, but then having him on the news. He was the talk of Seaford, and I was here trying desperately to try and move on and be happy like he would want me to be. _

_A soft knock came from the other side of my door and I slid out of my bed, putting on one of Jack's baggy sweatshirts that he had given me a few weeks ago when I got cold at the movies with him, Eddie, Jerry and Milton. I slowly shuffled to my door and unlocked it, opening it, peaking my head out to see Jack's little sister, G standing there, staring up at me with sad, innocent eyes. I frowned, opening the door up more for her to come in and she came in quietly._

"_How are you?" I asked her, closing the door behind me as we walked over to sit on my bed. _

"_I'm doing a bit better than before." She said quietly, playing with her little fingers. She stopped and then looked up at me. "Kim, are you coming to his funeral?"_

_I sighed, shaking my head as I ran a hand through my messed up bedhead, "I don't know, G. It's already hard for me as it is."_

"_I know that, Kim. But this is Jack, my brother. You have to at least honor his death somehow because you've been cooped up in here for weeks, and I've been trying to get my life together. Jack would want us to do just that instead of moping. I know you guys had a thing, but you need to be there, it wouldn't be the same without you." _

_With that, G stood up and walked to my door and left. I couldn't believe she had just said that, but she was right and she was the only person who could honestly tell me that I'm being stupid and should try and get my life together, and she wasn't even thirteen yet. Not even my parents could tell me. I decided that it was best to go to his funeral, to honor Jack, because it would be the last time I would see him. _

_**Three Days Later **_

_Jack's funeral was packed, but somehow I found a way to make it to the front by where his grave was and stood beside Milton, Eddie, Jerry, Rudy and Jack's little sister, G. Jack's body hadn't been brought out from the funeral home yet, and some people had quiet conversations about what to do after the funeral and how they would help Jack's family out. _

"_Yo, I can't believe this is really happening." Jerry said with a puppy dog frown. "I have such a big family, and I ain't ever been to one of these."_

"_Me either." Eddie said uncomfortably as more people started to come. _

"_We'll have an honoring for Jack after this at the dojo." Rudy said quietly as he held Jack's black belt in his hands with a tight grip. _

**Milton Krupnick **

_Kim hadn't spoken for weeks, and if she did, it was only to Jack's little sister, G who she seemed to have gotten very close with over the past few weeks. They were already close, but since Jack's death, they became closer. I couldn't believe it. It seemed like it never would have happened. Jack was the guy who held the dojo together, he was like the glue and now that he was gone, I had no idea what was in the future for Rudy and the dojo. I felt like we would crash and fall but I think Jack's death could also help us be the best that we can be, to honor him. _

"_MILTON!" I heard my name being called and we all turned around to see Julie coming towards us. I arched my brows and turned towards her, marching in her direction with Kim, Jerry and Eddie at my side. _

"_Julie?" I asked. "What in the world are you doing here?" _

"_You haven't talked to me for weeks!" She said with a frown. "I can assure you that I didn't have anything to do with Jack's death." _

"_But you are related to the man who had him killed." I stated. _

"_My Uncle Ty is in jail now, he won't be hurting anyone else!" _

"_I'm sorry, Julie. I just can't be with you anymore. Whenever I think of you, I think of what your uncle did to my best friend. Our best friend, and I just can't live with that." I said as I started to shake with sadness. I loved Julie, she was my everything, but I couldn't live knowing that she was related to the man that killed my best friend. _

"_Milton, you don't mean that do you?" She said as her eyes started to fill with tears. _

_I nodded sadly, "I do, and I am so sorry."_

"_No, I am. I apologize for my Uncle's foolish actions that got your best friend killed." Julie said bravely while she tried to hold back her tears. "I'll see you around, Milton." _

_With that, she walked away. Just like that. I couldn't believe how quickly I lost her, and the thing was I couldn't chase her, because it would feel wrong on my part. Eddie and Jerry patted my shoulders while Kim just stared at Julie walking away. _

"_Wow, I'm so sorry, bro." Jerry said comfortingly. "I know how much you liked her." _

"_Don't worry about it, Jerry." I said quietly. "Let's get back to the funeral, it should be starting soon."_

Kim Crawford 

_A few men in black suits rolled Jack into the middle of the circle where his coffin was. They took the table he was laying on and gently slid him into the coffin. Jack looked so different, he didn't look like Jack Anderson at all. He looked like a completely different person. He was wearing a tuxedo, and his arms were folded over his chest. His natural tan had gone away, his skin was now very pale and he looked limp. His dark brown hair had lost all of his color and depth and was now a faded light brown. It was also a bit shorter because the doctors had to cut it to stitch his head up before the funeral. _

_It broke my heart into a million pieces to see him like this. His little sister, G shook in fear and grabbed onto my hand tightly, and I squeezed her hand gently and stood up bravely. Jack's parents started sobbing and Rudy went up to the coffin and studied Jack's face, I slowly walked up beside him and looked down at Jack. I closed my eyes to blink back tears. _

"_You were my best student, Jack. I will never forget going to China with you, and all of the memories we have together will last a lifetime. I'm staying strong to honor you, I hate seeing your… our friends in this broken state. I will keep the dojo running, and I will try my best to help everyone get back onto their feet." Rudy said quietly. _

_With that, he took Jack's black belt and held it out to me, looking at me with a nod. I took it from him and G let go of my hand, I got closer to Jack's coffin and took his cold hand and put the black belt there, folding his hands again. I leaned in close to his face and whispered, "Thank you for always being there, I'll never forget you, Jack." _

**Present Day **

Jack, even in his ghost form still had that natural California tan, his built but slim figure and his chocolate shaggy brown hair. I blinked a few times, not believing that he was there but he still was, "Please don't be scared, Kim. It's really me, I promise. This isn't a dream or you hallucinating, I promise."

I gulped nervously and nodded, "W-What do you want?"

"I want to help you get better." He said quietly as he looked down. "I've been with you for almost a year now and you haven't gotten better, but you've gotten worse."

"Obviously." I said as I studied every detail I possibly could about him, trying to find something that I didn't remember about him but I couldn't, he was exactly the same.

"I was listening to the doctors talk about you, and they said if your blood pressure constantly keeps going up, it could affect your heart, I didn't hear the rest because they started speaking that fancy doctor language which I can't understand… but it didn't sound too good, Kim and I wouldn't want anything to happen to you."

For the first time in a year, I smiled. Even the ghost Jack could make me smile, "Jack, you don't understand what I'd do to be out of Seaford. I would do literally anything."

"I would do anything too," He said as he looked up at me. "But when I died, I wanted to make sure everyone was okay. My family is okay, and so are Jerry, Eddie, Rudy and Milton. Now you need to be better. Kim, I can't leave Seaford until I've helped you."

"What do you mean you 'can't leave'?" I asked.

"It's like I'm stuck on earth, well, in Seaford until you're better because like I said, when I died I promised myself that I wouldn't leave until I helped my family and my best friends."

"Wait, so the others can see you too?"

"No, just G can but I've found ways to communicate with the others, like telling them in a dream that it's time to move on, and it's time to get better. I couldn't figure out how to communicate with you for almost the entire year I've gone."

"Why can G only see you?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's because she's my little sister. I have no how this ghost form of being dead works, but I haven't seen any other dead people, so I might be the only one."

"But I don't understand why I can see you now, Jack."

"I think it's because your heart is slowing down which means your body is shutting down." He said quietly as he stepped closer to me. He reached his hand out to touch my cheek but it went straight through and he sighed with a frown.

"Does that mean that I'm dying?"

"Maybe it does, maybe that's why you can see me."

"Then I don't mind, Jack. I feel at ease when I see you, I don't feel so numb like I have for the last year. I'd rather be dead with you than alive living this hell of a life."

"You don't understand what it's like to be roaming the streets, dead, Kim. No one can see me, I can't sleep, I can't eat, all I can do is watch over people and the routine becomes really boring after a year."

"If I'm dead with you, then we can do it together, Jack. It wouldn't be so boring!"

"Look at yourself, Kim! You're dying! You can't be dying, you have so much potential in your future and you're wasting it here being sad over me when I've been here the whole time!" He shouted at me harshly.

That hit me like a dagger to the heart, "Well maybe you should just give up, Jack! Forget about it! Forget about me and just go to heaven or hell, just leave!"

"Kim I'm so-"

"Just leave!" I said, pointing at the door.

With that he hung his head down low and left the room. I looked down at my hands and started to sob. How could he just come in here, telling me he wants to help me get back onto my feet and then yell at me for missing him, mourning him and being sad that he's gone? What a jerk. I rested my head on the pillows on my bed and looked out the window at the foggy weather outside.

Forget dying, or getting better, I wanted to go to the mental institution to get out of here, I was sick of Seaford and even sicker of it knowing that Jack is roaming around here, trying to help me, but then he becomes a jerk. I don't understand, if he wants to help me, then why is he hurting me even worse?

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Hope you enjoyed this chapter! I had fun writing it with my friend, Bella. It's always fun to collaborate on a story with a good friend. I love writing this, and it isn't just in Jack and Kim's POV, there will be more POV's to come in the distant, and maybe even near future. Reviews would be nice because we love getting feedback on how everyone likes the story so far.

I'm not really one to do cliff-hangers, but the next few chapters might and I'm just preparing you now because I hate cliff-hangers but most authors that do them are so good and it leaves me so anxious but we shan't reveal when the cliffies come so just stay on edge I guess ;)

**Nclhdrs1717**: Thank you so much!

**Mickey-D 0505**: Thank you!

**Anon/Atavan343**: Thanks you! Sorry, we did rush it a bit because we're trying to limit the chapters because we don't want it to be too long, but we're planning a possible sequel for it already, we aren't sure yet, though. Really glad you enjoyed though :)

**kimandjackKickinit**: The only way for Jack and Kim to be together is if she passes away as well, we aren't sure about bringing Jack back because his body is just bones after a year of being buried! But there will be a happy ending :)

**LIVE LOVE PEACE**: Thanks you very much!

**Mckinnzeylovesaustinandally**: Thank you!

**Gemstone278**: Thank you so much! We just wanted to make this story different from the others, so that's why we made Jack dead, but things will get better :)

**BananaBubbles98**: Thank you so much! Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter. More to come :)

**HollyShadow17821**: Thank you :)

**KPopBoyfriend**: Glad you enjoyed!

Thank you to everyone who reviewed, like we said, we love the reviews. Positive and negative is accepted, we don't mind criticism because it helps us improve our writing and story! So please leave your reviews with questions, thoughts, ideas, etc. Thank you!


	3. Kim's First Words

We apologize that we haven't been posting for a while! We kind of lost motivation and with school and bad grades (both authors of this story started off their school year horribly…), we had no time to post and when we did, we didn't. But lately we've been getting lots of e-mail alerts from readers so we decided to give the next chapter a go…

So, anyway, thank you everyone for reviewing, it literally means a lot to us because we know that each and every one of you that reads this takes a few minutes out of your day to read it, and another few minutes to write us long or short reviews, all which we really appreciate even if it's negative. Criticism also is motivation for us because we'd like to know on how **YOU** guys, our audience want the story to end, or what direction you want it to go in. We've looked at all reviews, and we are gladly saying that this fan-fic will **NOT** be ending off like Titanic.

The ending of Titanic was very romantic, how she reunites with Jack after her death, but it was also very sad, but Rose was very old and died of age, we'd hate to put Kim through that even though she's a fictional character. She's still young, and she's still possibly got a life left to live.

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**Jack Anderson was fourteen years old when he was murdered after the Swan's Court Cotillion. For almost a year, he has been roaming the streets of Seaford in his ghost form, trying to find a way to communicate with Kim Crawford, the girl who hasn't quite gotten over his death.**

After Life

Jerry Martinez 

Chapter 3 

Kim's First Words

Today was the one year anniversary of Jack's death. It was hard to wake up and get out of bed, and my entire family was being obnoxiously loud as usual, so it put me in a bad mood. My cousin, Papito was in town once again and he actually didn't sleep in my bed this time, he got the floor. There was no way in hell that I would let him wet the bed. But that made it even worse, do you know how hard it is to sleep when you're stupid cousin is whining all night about how his back aches and how he needs a special tempur-pedic mattress? Lemme tell you, it's hard.

I tried to put on the nicest casual clothes that I had because Milton, Eddie and I were all going to go visit Kim in the hospital. She had been there for almost two weeks now and oddly enough, last night she texted us all, asking if we'd come and visit her. We all jumped at the chance, Kim had been so distant since Jack died that it made me sad 'cause Kim's usually so… Kim, and we all miss having that.

I'm a positive guy, I mean I'm Jerry Martinez, but when one of your best friend's comes to school looking like she just went dumpster diving (no offense to Kim), with red puffy eyes and no more self-confidence, it kind of brings you down. We all knew that Jack and Kim had a 'thing', even I knew and I'm confused all of the freakin' time but it was obvious. It was Jack and Kim. Everyone knew they'd get together eventually, but eventually didn't happen soon enough, sadly. I miss having Jack around. Good old Jackie Boy, the one that kicked me in the ribs because I was tired from Papito staying over and I didn't pick up his breaking board quick enough. Heck, I even missed that stupid victory dance of his that he did after every tournament we won. And that was the true definition of stupid, not me. Have you seen his victory dance? It's a crime to dancing, yo!

I slipped on my kicks and walked out the front door with my phone in my hand and I walked down the street to Eddie's house. We all lived on the same street, but the street was really long. It was around the corner from the mall, and Seaford was a huge place so all of the houses were big, but close together so I had a lot of houses to walk by before I got to Eddie's house was on the way to Milton's who lived by the entrance of the neighborhood.

Eddie sat outside on his porch wearing his purple button-up with dark blue jeans and some sneakers, he got up and we tapped knuckles, "What's good, bro?" I asked him as we started to walk to Milton's house.

"My Mom says I should've taken her homemade cookies to Kim." Eddie said in a disgusted tone, shaking his head. "My Momma can't cook for nothing, man. Those cookies would've straight up killed Kim!"

"My Mom makes the BEST cookies around." I said dreamily, licking my lips. "Oh, cómo echo de menos sorprendentes suaves de mi mamá galletas de chocolate con un poco de canela en México ellos ..." **(Oh, how I long for my Mom's amazing soft chocolate chip cookies with a bit of Mexican cinnamon in them...)**

We both started day dreaming about my Mom's amazing cooking until we got to the end of the street and Milton was running to catch up with us, "Hey! You guys forgot about me!"

"Sorry, Milton." Eddie apologized. "We were just thinking about Jerry's Mom's amazing cooking."

"At least it's something that's worth thinking about," Milton said as we crossed the street. "You really need to make up another 'fundraiser', Jerry and get your Mom to bake us all of those cookies again."

We passed the mall and walked down the street towards the hospital. All I could wonder was why Kim wanted to see us. She hasn't talked for an entire year to anyone except for Jack's little sister, G. Oh, and she talked to Jack's dead body at the funeral, which was trippy but we all did. I hoped she wasn't making us come to see her to tell us that she was dying or something cause I don't know if I could take that. Losing one of my best friends again.

After about ten minutes of walking, we finally got to the hospital and Milton led us in and went directly to the front desk asking for Kim's room. Third floor, room 382. 382. 382. 382. I've gotta remember that number: ROOM 38- is that a vending machine that vends COOKIES?

"Jerry, what number was it again?" Eddie asked as we got out of the elevator on the third floor.

I opened my mouth to speak but Milton cut me off, "Room three eighty two, I saw you eyeing that darn cookie vending machine."

"COOKIE VENDING MACHINE?" Eddie shouted his voice cracking.

I laughed, pointing at him, "Ha, bro, your voice just cracked."

"Why didn't you tell me there was a cookie vending machine?" Eddie said, starting to slap me and I started to scream helplessly like a girl.

"GUYS!" Milton said, flicking the both of us on the back of the head. "This is serious, we need to go to Kim's room and see why she wants to see us!"

We both rolled our eyes and followed Milton down the hallways of the third floor corridor (That's what Milton called it, I thought it was the third floor?) and we all looked at the numbers beside the doors. We were far from 382, about fifty doors away. I hate hospitals, they give me the creeps. And I also hate walking, it makes me tired.

It took a while to get to Kim's room because Eddie needed a snack, but we eventually managed to get to Kim's room. Room 382. Man, I can't tell you how nervous I was. Here is someone who hasn't talked to anyone really for a year and now she wants to talk to the goofiest group of guys in Seaford. Yeah, I admitted it. We're goofy, so what? People still love us, we're still totally SWAG. Okay, maybe not so much Eddie, his 'playa' status isn't working out and neither is Milton's… Well, I'm not sure what status he is looking for.

Milton stopped us as I started to turn the knob and pointed a finger at us, "Let me do the talking. And please don't say anything stupid that would make her regret asking us to come." Eddie and I both nodded, letting Milton open the door slowly.

What happened next surprised me. Kim wasn't in her bed all messed up and crying like we thought she'd be. She was walking around the room like she had been waiting for us and her eyes widened as she saw us all come in and when Milton closed the door behind us before she jumped on us, giving us all the biggest hugs. We were all confused, but we hugged her back.

"I've missed you guys so much!" She whispered loudly like she didn't want anyone but us to hear, like there was somebody else in the room. Kim pulled away from us and sighed tiredly, she looked a lot better than before. The bags under her eyes weren't as noticeable, she had gained some of the weight back that she had lost and she looked just better. Even I noticed that.

"Wow, Kim, you look great." I said with a grin and she gritted her teeth in an awkward smile, looking down. Wow, you'd think that smiling would come naturally but I guess after a year of not doing it, you need to practice at it.

"Thanks, Jerry. I guess I've been getting back onto my feet a little bit but I need to talk to you guys." She said as she went to go sit on her bed, and motioned for us to sit on the love-seat that she must have gotten put beside the bed. So cool, I wish I was in the hospital again! Just not like this.

"What do you need to talk to us about?" Milton asked patiently with a small smile as we all squeezed onto the tiny loveseat.

Kim looked down at her fingers and took a deep breath, like she was deciding on whether or not she should talk to us or not. It was quiet for a few minutes and the silence was killing me slowly. I wanted to ask Kim about how she was doing and how things were going for her since we rarely saw her at school. I opened my mouth to speak before I was interrupted by her, "I wanted to talk to you about Jack."

The room became even more silent then before, if that's even possible as we all exchanged glances at each other. We couldn't believe that she wanted to talk to him, Rudy told us that it was best to not bring Jack up around Kim or else she would freak, so we never expected this. Eddie and I looked at Milton and he nodded, "Okay, go ahead."

"He's here, in Seaford."

"What?" Eddie asked as we all leaned forward curiously.

"I can see his ghost, I don't know how but I can."

"Look, Kim…" Milton started, standing up.

"Guys, you have to believe me, please." Kim begged us with sad eyes. I looked down.

"I believe you." I told her and the guys looked at me like I was insane, but I truly did. "Guys, she wouldn't lie about this, come on."

"I don't know, I don't think that it's scientifically possible to have Jack's ghost form still roaming around Seaford, it doesn't seem likely." Milton said with a casual shrug.

"It's not science, Milton!" Kim snapped as she glared at him. He frowned and looked down and she sighed in frustration, running a hand through his tangled blonde hair. "I'm sorry. I'm just frustrated with this 'ghost' or whatever I saw. It thinks I might be dying."

"WHAT!" We all yelled in unison.

"Quiet!" She said as her eyes widened, she looked over her shoulders and shrugged. "Jack said that all of this constant stress and depression is making my heart slow down or something, and it means I could be dying which might be the reason that I can see him."

We all looked at Milton as he rubbed his chin, "I suppose that could be true. Normally when you're stressed your blood pressure will increase but I guess not in your case due to the depression and lack of activity, no offense." Kim shook her head.

"He said he used dreams or something like that… you know, so he can communicate with you guys." Kim said quietly. "Do you guys remember any dreams where Jack told you to move on or something similar to that?"

We all sat there and thought. I had to think really hard because I have really bad memory. I know I've had dreams of all of us since Jack's died but I can't remember a dream of him telling me it's time to move on, and I really didn't want to disappoint Kim so I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples.

There were so many dreams to try to think back on. I remember a few months after he passed away, about nine months ago, I had a dream of what happened that exact night. Instead of it just being Kim and Jack, the rest of us were there trying to help fight off the Black Dragons but it was too late, Jack got hit anyway. He was laying there, telling us that it's okay… that maybe this was meant to happen so that the rivalry would stop between our dojo and the Black Dragons.

I opened my eyes and looked at Kim who was looking at all three of us in patience. I remembered waking up that morning, after that dream and telling myself that it was okay, maybe it was supposed to happen or that maybe something even worse could've happened. Either way, Jack would have been willing to sacrifice himself in any way, shape or form for us, so I knew that I couldn't be so upset over it forever. He was gone, and there wasn't anything that we could do and I just had to accept that and remember all of the good times that we had.

As I opened my mouth to speak, Milton cleared his throat and I let out a deep breath as he began to talk.

"I've had dreams about him, but I haven't had him talking directly to me," Milton says quietly, "I mean after a while, I kind of decided that I needed to move on with my life. And that was after I had a dream with him in it, so maybe it was some kind of communication?"

"That's what I was about to say." I told him before looking at Kim, "Guys, think about it – Jack would've done anything for us, especially you Kim, so if that hadn't happened, something even worse could have."

Kim furrowed her brows and shook her head, "Are you saying that it's a good thing that he's gone?"

"No! But Kim, we're not rivals with the Black Dragons anymore." Eddie piped in, raising a finger to add… I don't know, he just looked like a girl doing that and I tried not to laugh.

Kim sighed sadly as she blinked back tears, walking over to the window. It was starting to rain outside and I mentally cursed at myself because I didn't bring something to keep myself dry.

"Y'all don't understand how much I want to move on, how much I want to forget about all of this. It kills me, kills me to see myself like this and to see my family thinking that it's their fault." Kim tells us as she turns around to face us, "But I know that I talked to Jack because he basically blamed himself for me not getting better. He says he's been watching me, but I guess I never felt him around until now. You may think I'm crazy, but I know that my parents wouldn't believe me and would send me away, so I need your guys help to try and get Jack to come back here, so he can help me because him walking out on me… Even in his ghost form isn't something I can handle."

Kim slowly trailed off and went back to looking out the window. I guess her silence was her way of giving us our time to decide if we wanted to help her, and I wanted to more than anything but how the hell were we supposed to communicate with Jack? I mean with all that she just told us, it seems like the only reason she can see him is because she's not over him and she's losing herself.

It's not that I'm over what happened to him, it's just that it isn't something I'm going to cry over anymore or put all of my non-existent attention to. Maybe you can only see him if you aren't over him or something.

"Kim, I wanna help but how can I if I can't see him like you can?" I asked as I stood up to go stand beside her. She looks up at me and purses her lips.

"He randomly came." Kim mumbled.

"You don't seem so thrilled about his visit." Milton noticed.

"He yelled at me, and I yelled back. It was an impulsive kind of thing on my part, but he was being a jerk! He was making my decisions for me."

"What decisions?" Eddie asked.

"He said that I might be dying, and I told him that if I am then I want to be with him in whatever form he's in and he basically said no."

"Why the hell would you wanna die, Kim?" I asked her with a frown. Why would anyone wanna die? Shoot, after the whole deal with Jack, I decided that I'd wanna live life to the fullest. Well, I haven't lived up to that whole bit but I've tried to. Life's short and you've gotta make the best of it, be with the people you love and all of that cheesy stuff, so what was Kim's problem?

Sure, she was upset still about Jack but it's been a year and I'm not expecting anything from her. I'm not expecting her to be happy, I'm not expecting her to be completely on her feet but damn it if us guys could do it, then she should be able to do something, not just give up.

"Don't you dare give up, Kim." I tell her with a stern tone, "You're way better than that and Jack may not be here to tell you that, but I am." I felt bad because I sounded kind of mean but it's the truth, I'm being honest. If it wasn't Jack helping Kim out, then it was me because Jack depended on me to be here for Kim if Milton wasn't and I know he would **NOT** have just said what I said to Kim cause he didn't have the guts. He's too nice, but nice isn't what she needs right now.

"Be gentle, Jerry!" Milton says in a whisper yell.

"No, no, Milton, Jerry's right." Kim says as she starts to walk around the room again, "I need to approach this with a more positive head on my shoulders, but I need your help." She looked at Eddie and Milton who still hadn't agreed to helping yet.

"Anything for you, and for Jack." Eddie says with a crooked smile as he stands up.

"I suppose I can try to assist, but I'll need to research more information as to how we're supposed to communicate with Jack, or I'll have to know specific details from when he came to see you." Milton explains as Kim nods boredly. And there it was, her actual smile. Man, if only Jack had been here to see it, then maybe he'd have something good to see if he's been roaming around the hospital or wherever he stays as a ghost.

**Eddie**

After we all agreed to help Kim figure out what she was going to do with the whole Jack situation, we all sat there and took a few hours catch up. It was nice. Ever since Jack was killed, none of us really talked. I mean us guys at school talked but it wasn't the same without Jack and Kim there. I felt lonely, lonelier than usual since Rudy wasn't his usual goofy self whenever we went to the dojo.

Ever since the whole incident with Jack, he wanted to be serious about martial arts because he felt like Jack's death was a disgrace to the Bobby Wasabi dojo and to Jack because our dojo always got looked down at by everyone else. I knew that we all had it in us to be the best but we were just teenagers, we loved karate but we loved messing around and having fun together when we were here but Rudy just didn't tolerate that anymore like he used to. I missed who he was, it's like he died with Jack.

I'm surprised that the dojo hasn't shut down yet, Rudy is barely there now and whenever I'm there, I'm usually alone or with Jerry or Milton awkwardly. We're all still close, but like I said, it isn't the same without our two black belts to help us. Before, I never realized how much would change if one of us wasn't around. Jack being gone was one thing, but Kim was another.

Kim had the choice of coming to the dojo for practice, or just to hangout but she almost never did which was kind of painful to know. It hurt to know that she'd rather be all holed up in her room by herself with no one to talk to than to come talk to Milton, Jerry and I. Sure, we were really stupid sometimes and Milton can be really annoying but it's better than going through what she's been through all alone.

Even with one less member in our group of what used to be five, I hoped that things could go to how they were before, even a little bit. I missed hanging out at Falafel Phil's and at random places around Seaford. I even missed doing karate tournaments with the gang, no matter how bad I am at karate. Thing would go back eventually, I had a hunch that they would but then there's Jack… Where is he? Was it possible for him to come back to us?

His body was probably long gone by now but if Kim could see his ghost and talk to him then there had to be some way that he could talk to Milton, Jerry and I cause well, we're his friends too and we aren't over it either. If it takes us missing him to see him, then I'll try to miss him more than I already do. I want my best friend back.

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And there we go! Hope that's an attempted long and satisfying chapter for you. Working on the next chapter within the next couple of days but for now, our focus is drawn more towards our Super 8 fan-fic, **Escape** which was something that we've been working on for quite a while now and need to polish up a bit before posting.

Anyway, more to come soon – The story just gets better from here. Leave a review for some ideas and maybe some POV's that you'd like to see aside from Kim and Jack. We're trying to get all sides of the story in, so Rudy's POV shall be done when he appears next in the story :)

Also, we have a fan-fic, another Kickin' It one called – **Just Friends** and we haven't done anything with it for like 10 months now and we want to know if we should continue it. It's a much more… happy story than this one is and there's a lot more Kick. Check it out and if you want, leave a review to let us know if we should continue that.


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